E. B. Delabarre, Ph. D. 125 



ton Inlet. Its fame rests chiefly on the fact that on it are 

 situated the Grand Falls, over which an enormous volume 

 of water drops a distance of over 300 feet.* Henry G. 

 Bryant, of Philadelphia, who explored them in 1891, writes 

 concerning them : "The Grand Falls of Labrador, with their 

 grim environment of time-worn, archaic rocks, are one of 

 the scenic wonders of this Western world, and if nearer civ- 

 ilization would be visited by thousands of travelers every 

 year. They are nearly twice as high as Niagara, and are 

 only inferior to that marvelous cataract in breadth and vol- 

 ume of water." 



Numberless shallow lakes, tarns, and pools are scattered 

 all over the country, covering, it has been estimated, at least 

 a quarter of the entire surface. f The coastline is exceedingly 

 irregular, indented by many deep harbors and fiords, one of 

 which, Hamilton Inlet, extends for 150 miles inland. Count- 

 less small, rocky islands line the greater part of the coast, ex- 

 tending out from it to a distance of five to twenty-five miles, 

 and affording safe inside runs and secure harbors for the fish- 

 ing fleet, as well as adding greatly to the attractiveness of the 

 scener\^ The soil is everywhere thin and unadapted to the 

 purposes of agriculture, although the missionaries who live 

 here always succeed in raising some of the hardier vegetables 

 and flowers at the expense of great labor and care. But the 

 country is by no means all bare. A plenteous vegetation 

 adorns the land in summer, composed of grass, moss, and a 



* Low (loc. cit., p. 141 L) gives the height as 302 feet; Bryant (Journey 

 to the Grand Falls, Phila. Geogr. Club, Bulletin No. 2, p. 32) as 316 

 feet. 



t Low (loc. cit., p. 23 L) ; but this applies to the whole country ex- 

 tending west to Hudson's Bay, instead of being confined to the h'mits 

 of Labrador proper as they are now defined. 



